The use and popularity of three and four wheeled personal vehicles has expanded from utility products such as lawn mowers or tractors to a separate industry that allows recreational users to take versions of the vehicles off road to explore areas that would be difficult strenuous of require an extended time of travel. In the expansion of this segment of all terrain vehicles the need to accommodate safety and comfort of the user is preferred. One common area that makes use of the vehicle more comfortable is the placement of the user's feet. In general the foot is placed on a nerf rail or guard that keeps the foot elevated above rocks brush or other obstructions that the vehicle is riding over. As the user rides over uneven surfaces the user's feet can bounce around making it difficult to maintain foot position. Several patents have been issued to provide a place for the foot to rest and other patents have been issued that provide a frictional surface that reduces movement of the foot as the vehicle moves and often bounces over the terrain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,121 issue to Graves on Mar. 1, 1988 discloses a foot protector constructed from tubular metal members. While the disclosed foot protector provides the basic function of protecting the users feet from ground obstructions, it is constructed only from tubular material and not a combination of tubular material and sheet material nor does it provide for attachment of a fabric webbing to extend the foot protection area. In addition the Graves patent does not provide for a heel basin or a configurable foot peg.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,057 issue to Lawson on May 29, 1984 discloses a foot rest made from sheet metal that has been bent and formed to create a foot rest for a front and back passenger. The bent sheet metal foot rest provides a substantially flat surface without a gripping portion to help maintain the user's foot in position of the foot rest. The entire foot rest area is made from a single sheet and does not provide for a fabric webbing to extend from the foot protection area. Tubular members are only used to connect the foot rest onto the motorcycle and are not user in the overall shape of the foot rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,106 issue to Maki et al. on Aug. 7, 2001 discloses a foot platform constructed from sheet metal that has been bent to form integrated rough areas to reduce the potential for foot movement. The bent sheet metal foot rest provides a substantially flat surface that has been formed with texture that covers the majority of the foot rest area to help maintain the user's foot in position in the foot rest but the area is not configurable with a changeable foot peg. The entire foot rest area is made from a single sheet and does not provide for a fabric webbing to extend the foot protection area.
U.S. Pat. No. D401,535 issued to Joseph, Jr. on Nov. 24, 1998, D488,407 issued to Wright on Apr. 13, 2004 and D489,295 issued to Wright on May 4, 2004 each disclose a foot peg for a motorcycle, or all terrain vehicle. Each of these patents discloses a foot peg that is bolted to an existing frame structure and then extends outside of the frame structure. These two foot pegs are fabricated from a single block of material and are designed for bolting onto and existing frame structure. They are not configurable or changeable to accommodate user preferences.
What is needed is a foot rest for an off read vehicle fabricated from a combination of tubular and sheet metal components to provide both structure, styling and safety to the user. The ideal product would also provide for a fabric web to extend the protection area. Configurable foot pegs would also provide additional benefit to accommodate user preferences. The proposed structure and foot peg provides these functions giving foot protection with configurability.